Well I had 'flu. I even gowned-up, my folks were so proud. I was so ill that I didn't even manage to go to the pub with them the night before and I only saw them for the ceremony and a few photos afterwards.

Everyone else seemed to be having a good time, especially all the close friends I'd made.

You get to dress up for the day after wearing nothing but shorts and t-shirts for the previous three years, you get lavished with praise from all corners, you get to go to a nice ceremony where, for a brief moment, you really do believe you are the 'nation's future' and that you can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it. You get say goodbye to people that you've been friendly with over the years but that you know, really, you will never see again.

And above all else, it's just nice to get closure. It's a nice way to end you childhood and the final rite of passage before becoming an adult and entering the 'real world' of jobs, responibility, and crudshing disappointment that for the rest of your life you will, in all liklihood, be sat by desk a desk slowly losing the will to live.

That's why graduations are great. But then, like Bamos, I had friends, so I probably had a lot more reason to be there.

The day time was wonderfully dignified, which juxtaposed the carnage that followed in the evening. I loved the ceremony, because even though it is a tad pompous, it's a one time thing and I deserved to be part of it.

Waking up in a roundabout was great too (LOOK AT ME, I DRINK AND GET WACKY!)

but rather they were staggered through the year and you had to apply for a specific date. I was away travelling when a lot of my friends graduated and my graduation was in March when I finished uni the previous June, so it wasn't exactly a 'closure' occasion. It was a nice day for my parents though and I met up with a bunch of friends in the pub afterwards so it wasn't so bad.

I do know a few people who are/have graduated in absentia because they can't be arsed or hate the idea, though. It's not really a big deal either way.